Construction Accident Claims in Miami

Miami-Dade is in the middle of a building boom, from the towers of Brickell and Edgewater to the warehouses of Doral and the infrastructure work on every expressway. Construction sites produce the most serious workplace injuries, and the compensation system for them has two tracks that most injured workers do not know about.

Written by the Florida Injury Team Legal Content Team · Reviewed for accuracy by our network of licensed Florida attorneys · Learn about our editorial process

Track one: workers’ compensation

Florida requires construction employers with one or more employees to carry workers’ compensation insurance. It pays medical care and a portion of lost wages without regard to fault, and in exchange Florida Statute 440.11 makes it the exclusive remedy against the employer. You generally cannot sue your employer for negligence, no matter how unsafe the site was. Report the injury to your employer within 30 days, and be aware that the insurer chooses the treating doctor.

Track two: third-party claims

The exclusive remedy protects the employer. It does not protect everyone else on the site. A separate negligence claim, with full damages including pain and suffering, may exist against:

• The manufacturer or lessor of defective equipment: scaffolds, lifts, saws, nail guns, harnesses
• A driver who struck a worker in a work zone, on the Palmetto or on a city street
• The property owner, when the owner is not acting as the contractor and controlled a hazard
• Engineers, architects or inspectors whose negligence caused a collapse
• A utility or delivery company whose employees created the hazard

Florida gives the general contractor and, in many situations, other subcontractors on the same project the same immunity as the employer. Whether a specific company is immune is a technical question the firm analyzes at the start of the case.

Common Miami construction injuries

• Falls from scaffolds, ladders and unprotected edges on high-rise projects
• Crane and hoist incidents
• Trench and excavation collapses
• Electrocution from contact with power lines
• Struck-by injuries from falling materials and vehicles
• Heat illness during summer work

Evidence that disappears fast

Construction sites change daily. The scaffold is rebuilt, the trench is filled, the equipment is returned to the rental company. OSHA may investigate serious injuries and its report becomes important evidence, but the firm also sends preservation letters to the general contractor, the equipment lessor and the property owner, and gathers photographs, daily logs and witness names from co-workers before crews rotate off the project.

Undocumented workers

Florida’s workers’ compensation system covers injured workers regardless of immigration status, and third-party negligence claims are available to any injured person. Status can become an issue in the calculation of future lost wages, which is addressed in the case strategy. It is not a reason to avoid making a claim.